Real Life Cooking Mama: Share Your Cooking Projects

Yes, it is the malt syrup used for brewing.

https://amzn.to/2IExWS7

If I wanted to get every last drop, that would be easy. The problem is that I’m only putting maybe 4 ounces of it into the water before boiling it. Seems like the old Brooklyn guys used molasses? Or maybe it is malt syrup and they just called it molasses because they didn’t know better?

Isn’t malt extract different from malt syrup?

From what I can tell they are the same thing and are made the same way. The only difference seems to be that malt syrup can come from any grain or combination of grains. Malt extract comes from barley only, and has more power. When I run out, I will probably try some other things like actual molasses or even honey.

That opens up some real possibilities to what type of malt sugar you could use. Pale Malt, Pilsen Malt, Maris Otter, Wheat, etc. Buying dry malt extract is much better for small recipes like what you are doing since you can just spend 5 bucks on a pound versus 20 bucks for 3 pounds of liquid.

If you’d want to try a different form of sugar that’s much easier to handle, Belgian Candi Syrup might be up your alley.

I don’t think dry is going to work.

“has more power”

I’m not entirely sure what this means. Malt extract syrup is non-diastatic - it has no enzymatic potential. It is full of maltose, which is just a glucose dimer, and it has residual proteins and other nutrients that support a healthy yeast population - is that what you mean?

I mean that malt extract is more malty than malt syrup. The same way that 90% cocoa dark chocolate is more powerful than 80% dark chocolate. Or at least that is what I have been told.

That explains why @Andy’s video included Diastatic Malt Powder specifically. Googling DMP shows that it is used exclusively for more technical aspects of baking like the rise and texture.

I use the diastatic malt powder also. The powder goes into the actual dough when you mix it.

The malt syrup is separate entirely. It goes into the boiling water.

I bought a Peugeot pepper mill, and it’s everything I hoped it would be.

I’m not sure what to do with my old non-Peugeot pepper mill.

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Donating is usually my default way of getting rid of things like that.

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I’ve been giving lots of stuff away om Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace lately with great success.

Whoops I ramen’d again

At this point I’m mostly experimenting with a heavy shoyu based broth which I find particularly tasty. I’ll probably experiment with other types at some point but this recipe actually only takes an afternoon which is why it’s so appealing.

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People seem to have very strong opinions about which ramen styles are best. Tonkotsu ramen, shoyu ramen, miso ramen. I have room for all ramens in my life.

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True, and I’ve definitely made my fair share of Tonkotsu ramens before. Haven’t tried miso or shio yet. The main difficulty for homemade Tonkotsu is that it literally takes like two days of time (maybe three if you need to do some difficult shopping for bones and parts).

If you want to up your ramen game…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyZjoJcvHvE&list=PLURsDaOr8hWXGHjXPa3nTFZnbqJcAfs4N

Here is a playlist

I’ve heard you can make tonkotsu broth significantly faster with an instant pot. Haven’t tried it yet so I don’t know if it’s a good idea or not.

Pressure cookers don’t boil enough to emulsify the fat and incorporate it into the broth. Kenji tried it and found it lacking

What emerged from the pressure cooker sure was tasty, but it was by no means a good tonkotsu ramen broth. Rich with gelatin and flavor, to be sure, but it was nearly transparent in color. The problem is that in the high-pressure environment of a pressure cooker, temperatures get higher, allowing for fast extraction and conversion of collagen to gelatin, but the high pressure also prevents the rolling boil necessary for getting those extracted solids to emulsify into the broth.
Rich and Creamy Tonkotsu Ramen Broth Recipe

To be clear, I’ve made almost every kind of ramen, at this point it’s mostly about perfecting a single style that both myself and my partner enjoy (she doesn’t really like tonkotsu due to it’s richness)

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Thanks for the tip.

:rice_ball:

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